TRUSTING AND LETTING GO

Fr Jim Cogley

What an extraordinary answer Jesus gave to the Jews who asked him ‘what must we do if we are to do the works of God?’ He said that this is working for God: ‘you must believe in the one he has sent.’ Having belief is really having faith and putting our whole trust in that person. I once heard of trust in terms of two trapeze artists who performed in a circus. They had a spectacular act where both would swing and at a certain point of momentum one would let go and fly through the air to be caught hold of by the other coming towards him. Someone enquiring about the act was told that the secret was entirely the job of one to let go and it was the job of the other to do the catching. This was a powerful illustration of what it means to have faith in Jesus. It’s our job to let go and it’s his job to catch us.

If there is a secret to experiencing a sense of excitement and adventure in living the Christian life it has to be learning the art of letting go. This is the secret that is expressed in the philosophy of AA, to ‘let go and let God’ and it really makes sense to those who have found their lives to be unmanageable and that only a higher power could restore them to sanity. Without surrender or letting go, we are not really open to the voice of God simply because our way is all important. It is important to apply this truth not just to addiction but to any area of our lives that we find unmanageable and beyond our control. The acknowledgement of our weakness is always the starting point – its where we finally give up the struggle, accept the bankruptcy of our ego and simply let go.

Life divides into two classes of people; those who live the life of surrender and say to God, Thy will be done, and those to whom God says; okay have it your own way. If we fall into the second category the voice of God will be an affront to our ego that wants to remain in charge and so we close our minds to any form of listening. Similarly, if we fear hearing because of what we might be asked, that too will close our ears. It is true that we will always be called to what is beyond us but that is where faith comes in. The Lord will never call but he will empower and he will never lead us where he will not provide. Many of us go through life feeling that when it comes to surrender, we can only go so far and there is always a part that we hold back on. So we use such phrases as ‘I have a long way to go when it comes to total surrender.’

Notice that it is the bit of ourselves not surrendered that always trips us up. However also notice that everything is predicated upon ‘I’. It would be an enormous boost to our ego if we could surrender fully because it is we who would take the credit. Perhaps the honest thing to do is accept our inability and reluctance to surrender and offer that to the Lord. Surrender is never about will-power, but it is about willingness. It is at this point we discover that true surrender is pure gift and if we are just willing to be made willing the Lord’s grace will do the rest. Full surrender is a place we are brought to rather than somewhere that we are capable of going to, but we do need to say ‘Yes’ to Thy will being done.

Following from that revelation or insight at the apparition Hill in Medjugorje, I shared the experience with the pilgrimage group and having located some medal like keys in a souvenir shop I gave one to each of them. My room companion with whom I also shared the story went to confession and came back to say ‘you won’t believe but the priest concluded by saying, ‘Remember, surrender is the key’. Medjugorje I would class as a ‘thin place’ where with so much prayer taking place miracles do happen and can be seen to happen. Co-incidences that are truly ‘God incidences’ are daily occurrences and encounters happen that have far reaching consequences. Countless lives are exposed to the grace of conversion there and many leave very different to when they arrived. Having experienced most of the usual signs associated with the place I have come to see that ‘for those who believe no signs are necessary while for those who do not believe no signs will suffice.’ In the end of the day, it’s the experience of the heart and nothing external that really matters. Moving statues may get busses moving but do they really move hearts?